AeroGrow AeroGarden with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit | 
 enlarge
| Brand: AeroGrow
Category: Lawn & Patio
Buy New: $124.13 - $199.95 (On sale from $299.99)
Amazon.com - Usually ships in 24 hours
LiveScience Store  206 reviews - Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Todays Concept  4153 reviews - Usually ships in 3-4 business days
BetterGrow Hydro 331 reviews - Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Green Depot 7 reviews - Usually ships in 6-10 business days
Rating:  192 reviews
Legal Disclaimer: You may return or exchange merchandise purchased from Macy's @ Amazon by mail only. Certain items are covered by warranty as indicated. To obtain a copy of the warranty prior to purchase, please write to: macys.com Customer Service Dept.; P.O. Box 8215; Mason, OH 45040; Small Ticket Department-Warranty;
MPN: 216549
ASIN: B000FI4OCM
| |
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
YEAR - ROUND gardening, in the comfort of your kitchen! Aerogarden Indoor Grower, ON SALE! Grow herbs, vegetables and flowers INDOORS, all year long! The Aerogarden uses state-of-the-art aeroponics to grow plants without the use of soil, and with 95% less water than soil-bound plants. Instead of dirt, each plant's root system is suspended in a 100% humid, oxygenated and nutrient-rich growing chamber. Full-spectrum fluorescent light bulbs provide robust, healthy growth night and day. Make every meal more delicious with 100% natural, freshly grown ingredients... with your first harvest after only 28 days! Includes 7 different seed packs to get you started: Italian basil, cilantro, mint, dill, parsley, chives and purple basil. With two more seed packets offered separately below! UL-listed. Measures 16 x 10 1/2 x 15 1/2"h., adjustable to 21"h. to accommodate plant growth. Entire Set weighs approx. 11 lbs. Order yours today! Aerogarden Indoor Garden Grower, Black
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
Works as Advertised - Classy Product November 28, 2006
P. Schmidt (Chicago, Illinois USA)
624 out of 630 found this review helpful
see update at end of review
******************
I was lamenting about only having frech lettuce, herbs, chives, and tomatoes from may garden during the long fall-winter-spring parts of the year. The refrigerated stuff from the grocery store goes bad right away and does not taste as good as the fresh stuff from the garden, either.
Then I saw a Time Magazine page on the new AeroGrow AeroGarden, and I just had to try it out. After reading the AeroGrow website before making the purchase, I realized that buying one garden would not work for me, as the tomatoes cannot be grown in the same garden as lettuce & herbs. This is partially due to the large amount of room taken up by the tomatoes, and also because the lamp/watering cycle is different and finally because the nutrients are different.
So, I bought two gardens, along with the Salad Greens seed kit and Cherry Tomato seed kit. Each garden comes with a mixed herb kit, so I figured to mix in a few herbs with the other seeds, and if they did not work, no big loss.
The products came quickly and the instructions for assembly were very clear and well written with excellent diagrams. I came to realize that this somewhat pricey product at least comes from a company that produces a classy product (a rare thing these days). I found a space on a shelf beside the basement stairs, and placed both assembled gardens there. I also bought and placed a digital thermometer with maximum/minimum temperature memory readouts ($10 at Radio Shack), because I was unsure of what temperature extremes the plants might experience in that location (68-72 as it turns out).
The seed kits contain pre-seeded planting pods. Each pod is basically a plastic cup shaped frame with two pieces of foam rubber inside the cup part, like two slices of bread with the seeds sandwiched between them. They simply insert into the seven holes in the top of the garden's water tank. The Salad Greens and Herbs come with seven pods per kit, while the Tomatos come with three pods plus four hole plugs-the plants are bigger so three of them take up thw whole space available. The hole plugs prevent evaporation of the water through the unoccupied holes.
The water tank holds exactly one gallon of regular drinking water. Well water is not recommended, presumably because of impurities, and since I am on a well I bought two one-gallon plastic jugs of 'drinking water' at the store for 50 cents each and filled the tanks with their contents. A pump in the tank takes water and pipes it to the rim of each of the seven holes in the tank's top, and here the trickle of water flows into the foam sandwich of each seed pod. The foam stays moist and the rest of the water drips back down into the tank. The garden's 'computer' cycles the water flow on and off according to the amount recommended for the type of plant being grown. A water level sensor turns on a flashing red light when it is time to add more water to the tank.
The top of the garden is a reflector with two compact-fluorescent lamps, of the variety that has the special ultraviolet (UV) coating that causes the emmitted light to resemble sunlight. The reflector rides on a vertical pole that extends up from the garden's base, so you can raise and lower the lamps as required to keep them the correct distance above the plants. The garden's 'computer' also turns the lamps on and off according to a schedule tailored to the type of plant. If using the gardens in a place where the light might be a problem at night, you can syncronize the computer so that the lights are on only during the daytime and off when you are trying to sleep.
The seed kits come with little clear plastic cups that cover each pod until the seeds have germinated, then you can dispose of them. The kits also come with a bag of nutrient tablets, which you add to the water tank when the computer prompts you to by flashing a red light. The nutrients are tailored to the type of plant being grown, and there are enough of them to feed the plants during their anticipated life span.
I planted one garden with five salad green (leaf lettuce) pods, plus one pod each from the Herb kit, chives and parsley. The other garden got the threee pods from the Cherry Tomato kit; two reds and one yellow variety.
Each seed pod has a label that tells you how many days to wait for plants to appear after germination. All of my plants appeared like clockwork.
I have had the gardens for about six weeks now, and have been enjoying salads containing lettuce, parsley and chives plus other odds and ends from the fridge, for the last two or three weeks. The lettuce and herbs are all beautiful, with no problems from bugs or too much/too little water, excessive temperatures, etc. No need to wash the plants or check for bugs or pick off bad spots, everything goes straight to the salad bowl. What a joy! Even with only five lettuce plants, I have to eat two meals including salad each day to keep up with the growth. This would easily feed two people, and if all seven salad green pods had been used, three people.
The tomatoes are all doing well ahnd have been pruned according to instructions. It will be some time yet before they produce flowers, and then fruit. But based on the health of the plants, I expect a good yield.
Each seed kit comes with a full color manual/booklet that covers all aspects of 'planting', germinating, feeding, pruning (if required) and then harvesting the plants. There are also photos of plants where things have gone wrong (leaves burned because the lamps were not raised up as the plants grew taller, etc) with clear instructions on how to recognize problems and correct them. Harvesting instructions clearly tell how much can be taken at a time without killing the plant, and so on.
The AeroGrow gardens are a well designed, well built product with excellent documentation. All my visitors are amazed at how well the product works, and many have gone out and bought their own. I anticipate years of improved eating because of this product.
*****************
Update November 2007
I used my two gardens all Winter (2006/2007) until it was time to start getting produce from my real (outdoor) garden in the Summer, at which time I put the little gardens to rest for the season. During their use, I got a large crop of cherry tomatoes, all of which were beautiful. I went through on crop of lettuce and salad greens, and when the lettuce finally bolted, I replanted with only lettuce (no chives, etc this time) and got another couple of months worth of lettuce. I have now fired them up again in the Fall, and have nice little plants popping up. Aerogrow has more seed options available now, so I have planted a more interesting kind of lettuce.
Why Didn't Someone Think of This Sooner??!! July 6, 2006
NuJoi (Chicago, IL United States)
185 out of 188 found this review helpful
I love this product -- no dirt, no bugs and no chance of over-watering! This is very easy to assemble and easy to use. Just add water and a couple of nutrient tablets every two weeks. There's even a light that tells you when you need to do this.
I planted my Gourmet Herbs on June 15 and I was ready to harvest the basil before the fourth of July! If you follow the instructions, there's no way to mess this up. The herbs lasted about six months. My only caution is (and this is noted in the instruction booklet) that the lamps are on about 16 hours a day and they are bright at night. I can close off the bedrooms, so it doesn't bother me.
I highly recommend this product to anyone one who has tried to grow herbs indoors in the past. Aerogarden's customer service team is the best -- they know their stuff and are vary helpful. I had a problem with one of the herb kits and they have really worked to fix the problem.
Update: I read another reviewer's note about installing a new pump. I had a seed pod that never sprouted and after being shipped a replacement pod that also didn't work, Aerogarden sent me a new pump. I installed it last night with a new kit. The instructions were clear and it was pretty easy to do. I liked doing it myself in five minutes instead of sending the unit somewhere to be repaired. It still was an inconvenience, but my positive experiences with the product far outweigh the annoyance of the installation.
Update:
My first kit was the gourmet herb and as noted above, I had problems with the cilantro. I have since replanted my garden by mixing the French, Itallian and new Gourmet Herb kits and they've worked beautifully,especially the cilantro. The new pump has made all the difference. My oregano is even more hearty this time around. With the mew pump, all of my herbs are doing better. After almost two months of growth, the thyme appears to be the least robust of the bunch, but still has a good yield. It's in a back corner spot.
Little Rainforest in my Kitchen April 13, 2007
Susan Avallon (Los Angeles, CA USA)
61 out of 62 found this review helpful
Well, I have five of these gardens now, so obviously this is a product I've been very happy with. I started out with tomatoes and salad greens, and the salad greens were so tasty I added a second garden of those and two strawberry gardens (the second one is on order).
I have had no trouble with the pumps or noise, and everything has grown beautifully. With five gardens going at once, it's so bright in that area of my kitchen that it looks like a UFO landing site, LOL, but they are all scheduled to go off at 11 p.m. so it's no problem at night when we're sleeping.
These gardens are so cheerful to have around. They add a nice moisture and a green, fresh smell, and I find the lights cheerful too.
The salad greens grow very quickly and are so tasty that my biggest problem is resisting the urge to constantly pluck off leaves and eat them all day long. That's why I got a second one -- so there would be plenty. With four in my family, one garden did not produce quite enough for us. Our first salad crop also did not grow for very long, only a couple of months, but I think that's just the nature of the plant. The tomatoes took a long time to go to the fruiting stage (13 weeks), but now they are producing two or three ripe tomatoes each day, and they are delicious.
I love having food growing indoors. No bugs, no bird poop, no dirt, and everything can be eaten right off the plant. Tonight over dinner we literally watched our first strawberry turn from white to pink on the end.
No, this is not a particularly economical way to grow food, but it's loads of fun and has been educational and exciting for my kids, who are much more interested in fresh produce than they used to be.
I've had no trouble with either the pumps or the customer service. In fact, everyone at Aerogrow has been very kind and helpful, both over the phone and in e-mail. I hope the company continues to thrive because I just love these little gardens and hope to use them for years.
Cool gadget - one caveat October 10, 2006
Jan Klier (Seattle, WA USA)
53 out of 55 found this review helpful
This is one of these more useful kitchen gadgets. Every time I need fresh herbs for a recipe, I end up buying one of those expensive packs, use one or two twigs, and end up tossing the rest, and everytime it irks me. So this looks like it solves that problem, and do so without becoming this huge time sink that a full-blown herb garden would do.
One can argue that for $149 for the unit, and $20 for extra seed kits, I can buy a lot of herb packs at the grocery store before breaking even. True, but it makes it less painful to use fresh herbs or garnish your dish with a single salad leaf.
The one caveat I would put on it: you can't really mix and match the seed kits. The settings on the unit, and the nutrient tablets are optimized for each seed type. First I thought, I'd use 2-3 salad pods, a few of the herbs, some basil, and then some fresh tomatoes in the two units I bought. Well, that doesn't work (or at least I don't know what the results would be - but it's clear from the package that the nutrient tablets have different ingredients, and the water pump runs all the time for salad, when it only cycles on/off for other seeds). So I'd have to get 4 of those - that's a lot of money and a lot of space in the kitchen. So I guess I'll sequence which seeds I grow every 6 months and stay with 2.
The base unit always comes with the salad green seeds. Looks like they're the ones sprouting the fastes (within 2-3 days) - they must be hedging their bet against impatient and skeptical customers.
Ordering a 2nd garden August 20, 2006
Taylor (Minnesota)
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
I am very happy with this garden so happy I am ordering a 2nd one. I planted salad greens just a week ago and the plants are growing so quick you can see the difference each day. I work a day time job so I have the light come on about the time I get home and stay on all night - that way it is almost like a second lamp and I can look and admire my plants as much as I want. It is fun watching them grow and I can't wait to harvest them. The salad green kit said that you can start harvesting in about 2.5 weeks, and at the rate these plants are growing I believe that to be true. I have tried growing fruits and vegatables indoors before but I never had much luck. The thought of being able to eat freshly picked food is enough to make me buy another garden. I can't wait for them to come out with the Strawberry seed pods (I will probably need a 3rd garden then).
I now had my first salad with the salad greens; it was so good I made a 2nd larger salad. I am very happy with this garden.
|
|
|
